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Singapore – Spring Singapore has launched ‘Get Singapore’ – a collective brand that will act as a focused marketing platform to showcase well-designed and high-quality Singapore brands both locally and abroad.

It is a joint initiative of Spring Singapore and the local retail industry, supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, and has been subscribed by 37 brands comprising of large and mid-sized retailers.

Get Singapore offers the participating brands a strategic and unified platform to showcase and market their brands and merchandise both here and overseas. A series of events and activities targeting consumers and companies will be held in Singapore, encompassing mall activities as well as joint initiatives with partners such as payment system vendors, mall owners and industry associations.

The launch of the Get Singapore website will also include a special section on corporate gifts for organisations; leaflets will be distributed at the Changi Airport visitor centres, while an advertising campaign will soon roll out as well as Get Singapore visual merchandising across all participating outlets.

A promotion will run at VivoCity from 29 May to 1 June, followed by another at Centrepoint from 14-19 July.

According to Kim Faulkner, acting CEO of Get Singapore, marketing activities overseas are planned for the near future – as the group sets out to change the international perception of Singapore brands.

“Collectively, Get Singapore will promote Singapore as a place where good design and innovative retail ideas flourish. In fact, several of the participating brands have taken their concepts abroad and have already built a strong regional and international customer base,’ Faulkner said.

Canada: With a brand value of $3.1 billion, Shoppers Drug Mart took the number-one spot on Interbrand’s first-ever ranking of Canada’s top 5 retail brands.

The list was rounded out by Canadian Tire ($1.8 billion), Rona ($485 million), Sobeys ($368 million), and LuLuLemon ($352 million).

“Shoppers Drug Mart has great geographic coverage, but in addition has done a good job branding the retail experience with its new stores, so that you’re more likely to be walking through the high-value, high-profit products first,” said Ted Graham, director, business development at Interbrand.

Last year, Shoppers opened a beauty concept store offering an “upscale beauty experience” under the new store banner Murale, and plans to expand its Shoppers Simply Pharmacy stores, a format designed to work within hospitals.

In the U.S., where 50 brands were ranked, the top five retail brands were Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, Target and CVS Pharmacy.

The ranking marked the first time Interbrand has issued a brand value for Wal-Mart. Historically, the company has been excluded from its global brand ranking because it operates under different banners in the rest of the world, said Graham.

Wal-Mart’s brand value of US$129 billion is almost double the global brand value of Coke, and is larger than the rest of the top 10 U.S. retail brands combined, said Graham.

NEW YORK (CNN) — McDonald’s new ad campaign is taking a non-too-subtle jab at Starbucks.

Residents in Seattle, Washington, the birthplace of Starbucks, can now see approximately 140 McDonald’s billboards emblazoned with “large is the new grande” or “four bucks is dumb.”

In a statement released Thursday, McDonald’s called it “a light-hearted, fun approach to our brand,” aimed at promoting the company’s McCafe coffee products. However, Starbucks is not finding the ad campaign funny.

“Comparative campaigns are all well and good but only when they’re credible and authentic. If the claim is not supportable or the tone is off, you risk losing credibility,” Deb Trevino, director of global communications for Starbucks, told CNN.

A 12-ounce cup of coffee at Starbucks in Seattle costs just $1.40, only a penny more than the average price for a same size cup at McDonald’s.

Credibility is something that Starbucks claims it is not short on. A portion of coffee sales currently goes towards health care for Starbucks’ baristas, while another goes towards helping AIDS victims in Africa, according to the company.

“We will not enter into a tit-for-tat,” Trevino said. “Our customers are interested in more than just the coffee, they come for the experience.”

For now, McDonald’s said it does not plan to take its “four bucks is dumb” campaign nationwide

Capgemini, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing is strengthening its position in the consumer products and retail sector by working with some of the world’s best known retail brands to support their business transformations. A New contract has been entered into with Maxeda, while successful projects have been completed for Albert Heijn, Beam Global and Wickes.

In the Netherlands, Capgemini has been selected to manage the IT activities for Maxeda, the largest non-food retailer in the Netherlands. This five-year Outsourcing agreement is for both infrastructure and application management services. The purpose of this agreement is to help Maxeda in achieving its international growth objectives. Tony DeNunzio, Chairman of the Board of Maxeda, stated: “Transferring our activities to Capgemini means that we now have a collaborator with true global expertise and experience, which helps us to achieve our international growth objectives. Moreover, outsourcing our IT activities is consistent with Maxeda’s strategy, which is to concentrate more on our core business which is retail. Another benefit is that the transfer has opened up new career opportunities for our IT staff.”

Also in Outsourcing in the Netherlands, Capgemini helped supermarket chain Albert Heijn, the market leader in the grocery business in the country, to improve its supply chain through responsiveness to customer behaviour, a high level of automation and cost control. According to Tony Vendrig, VP Supply Chain, Albert Heijn: “A true collaborator, Capgemini supported the replenishment project with excellent people in important roles. Capgemini brought in the right IT and retail knowledge, but even more importantly, the right skills and attitude. This determined the actual success.”

For Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. in North America, the world’s fourth largest spirits company, Capgemini has used its full breadth of transformational consulting capabilities to re–engineer Beam Global’s international operations providing improved synergies and growth enablement. Beam selected the SAP Business Suite as its global ERP platform and Capgemini US LLC drove the technology transformation with an onsite team at Beam’s offices in Chicago, supported by key functions through a global delivery model.“Beam Global now has an IT platform and business processes that match the globally interconnected nature of our business. Capgemini and SAP were instrumental in helping us to achieve that,” said Keith McLeod, Chief Information Officer, Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc.

Finally, in the United Kingdom, Capgemini has been awarded a 100% rating for all key success criteria at the conclusion of an 18 month IT outsourcing contract with UK-based DIY company, Wickes. The purpose of the contract was to ensure top quality service whilst all of Wickes’ IT systems were migrated to a new site. Under the agreement, Capgemini UK plc was responsible for maintaining computer operations and technical support for all core IT systems including stock-control, daily store polling and support for all 180 Wickes stores across the UK. Graham Malpas, Service Delivery Manager of Wickes’ parent company Travis Perkins, said: “The leadership and management provided by Capgemini was outstanding and was a major factor in keeping services at peak levels, retaining key staff and maintaining staff morale, eliminating risks and helping us ensure a smooth migration.”

Brian Girouard, Leader of Capgemini’s Global Consumer Products and Retail Sector, said: “Being chosen by these four consumer products and retail companies is further evidence of Capgemini’s ability to integrate innovative business processes by leveraging emerging technologies to help our clients meet their own strategic objectives.”